The Dragon Behind The Boy
by TheMaddogMerc
Summary: "I'd forgotten. He may be a blockhead ... but when it comes to fighting, his mind is a steel trap." What if Natsu's fight against Sting and Rogue went a little differently, and the reactions he received were justified. One-Shot. This is my favourite quote from the entire Fairy Tail series, so I hope you enjoy.


"IDIOT! I'm in dragon force, this gives the wielder the power of the dragon! There's nothing more powerful in this world."

All around the stadium people watched as the stare down between Natsu Dragneel of Fairy Tail and Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney continued. There was a collective intake of breath around the entire stadium however when Sting's commented on his power. This unnerved the people due to its truth, what could be more powerful than a dragon?

However the feral grin that came upon Natsu's face, the sharp canine teeth glinting in the cavern, the bloodlust that shone in his dark coal black eyes – this unnerved the people more. Even those that were members of Fairy Tail felt a little uncomfortable with his look, none more so than Gajeel who as stood next to him, and felt the spike of power that originated from the salmon haired boy.

"There is one thing that's more powerful than dragon force though." Natsu stated with a small growl in his voice. Gajeel slowly backed away a little knowing that if he intervened then he would become the next enemy in Natsu's eyes, after all it was number one rule when becoming a dragon slayer.

_Don't hurt their pride. _

Everyone held their breath as Natsu said that, Sting and Rogue looked shocked, like they couldn't believe there was anything more powerful than that of dragon force. "Yeah, then what's more powerful than dragon force." If anything Sting's comment caused Natsu's grin to become wider, the bloodlust in his eyes become more obvious.

Back in the stands, Erza gasped as she saw the scales slowly start to appear on Natsu's arms, above the brows of his eye's as well as below them, recognising them from his battle against Jellal at the tower of heaven. Meanwhile everyone else gaped at the site of scales appearing on Natsu, no one other than Erza, Jellal or Zero seeing him like this.

Sting and Rogue stared in wonder at the new appearance of Natsu, his muscles slightly larger and much more defined, his canine teeth lengthened another centimetre or so, his eyes turning to reptilian slits and staying that way, and more obviously the dragon scales that donned his skin.

Gajeel merely grunted and backed away another step, now knowing what Natsu had done, recognising the signs from his lectures with Metalicana. However Gajeel couldn't stop the small pang of jealousy that went through his core for that small moment, Natsu already had a duel element, no Dragon Force as well.

Wendy started in wonder as Natsu's new form stepped forward slightly, hoping one day to be as powerful as big brother Natsu.

However everyone else remained absolutely silent, not daring to make a sound as once again took another step forward in the direction of Sting and Rogue.

"The only thing more powerful than Dragon Force is …" Even Natsu's voice sounded different, more gravelly with a small almost unnoticeable growl in it. Everyone unconsciously leaned in waiting to find what could beat the power that a dragon held. Some seemed to realise it, Master Makarov nodded to himself, understanding what Natsu was going to say, Mavis Vermillion also knew what Natsu meant, and couldn't stop the smug smile that formed on her face.

"… is that of a more powerful dragon." With his statement said Natsu shot of like a rocket, a flicker of fire was all that was seen and then Sting was sent flying backwards until he hit the wall of the cavern, and staying there for a few moments to get his bearings straight. No one noticed this though as they were all staring at Natsu in astonishment and some with slight fear.

No one could that single sentence out of their head _'is that of a more powerful dragon.'_

Everyone stayed silent as Natsu once again took off after Sting, this time sending him back up to the top with a powerful uppercut. Everyone stayed silent as Sting fell to the ground and stayed there for a moment, before rolling over with a groan of pain.

Back don in the cavern however Rogue took this moment as a chance to go after Gajeel.

"Gajeel …" the growl that was about to rip through his throat was stopped dead as Natsu appeared in front of him stopping him dead in his tracks, all thoughts of beating Gajeel turned into defending himself as Natsu unleashed his attack. Punch after punch, kick after kick, and a never ending series of attacks constantly coming. Not being able to get away in his shadow form due to Natsu's enhanced senses, only finding one solution Rogue quickly dived into the shadows and travelled back to the arena.

Gajeel meanwhile still sat in the same spot he was in when all this happened, idly munching on some scrap metal he found, but stopper when a pair of sandals came into his view. Looking up at Natsu warily he wondered what he was going to do, as did everyone else that was watching. All asking the same question.

'Would he attack his teammate?'

However to everyone's shock, and to Fairy Tail's delight, Natsu merely offered his hand to Gajeel, once firmly grasped Natsu swung round and launched Gajeel back up to the top, here Gajeel landed firmly on his feet.

Natsu however did not climb, nor run, nor fly up to the top. Flames poured out of his feet, propelling him at speeds Racer from Oración Seis would have been proud of, stopping the flames as he reached a good thirty feet above Sting and Rogue, Natsu took a deep breath. Gajeel seeing this paled slightly and hastily went in the furthest possible point from Sabertooth's Twin Dragons.

Erza also seeing this quickly tightened her grip on the fence in front of her quickly signalling those from Fairy Tail to do the same, other guilds seeing this decided to cop their example, soon enough everyone bar the Sabertooth Master and the other arrogant wizards were holding themselves steady.

"**Karyū no Hōkō"**

With his spell said, a torrent of flame reaching around six foot in diameter shot out of his mouth and headed straight for the Twin Dragons. The force of his roar caused all those in the arena to grip the bars tighter in order to stay in place, the guild master of Sabertooth quickly gripped the bar as well in order to stay put, and all the others that did not grab the bars were unfortunate enough to be blown back a couple of rows. Some of them were lucky enough to be grabbed by the rest of the crowd to stop them from being blown away too far.

Everyone had wide eyes as they watched the force of the attack demolish the rest of the arena floor sending Sting and Rogue back into the cavern that Sting had previously used to dominate Natsu and Gajeel. Gajeel took this time to climb up to the ledge by the rest of the Fairy Tail guild as they watched Natsu dive in after them, his pink haired form disappearing from view causing the lacrima screens to come back up.

"Gajeel, why is Natsu doing … _this_?" Pantherlily asked, thoroughly confused by the normally fun loving Dragon Slayer's attitude.

As this was asked a new lacrima screen appeared this time showing Gajeel and Pantherlily, broadcasting their conversation. "It's due to a lesson that all Dragon Slayer's are taught," a small glance toward Laxus showed that he meant him too, "whether they realise it or not. I believe pip squeak could tell you more, she should know it as well." At this the lacrima swivelled round to face Wendy, whose face was the picture of confusion before she realised what he was talking about.

"OH, it was the first and last thing they taught us. Never_, ever_ insult a dragons pride, whether it is directly or not, as the response will always be the same …" Wendy's voice was projected around the stadium allowing all those who cared to listen in, however before she could finish she was cut off, but it was _who_ cut off that surprised everyone.

"A battle to determine dominance, show them that no matter their opinion, they are below you, they are your _inferiors_." The voice of Yajima, the current Grand Magic Games judge and former Magic Council member cut into the conversation. Once again the lacrima turned to face the new speaker. "However there is another reason for this …" Yajima gave the current battle a sideways glance to consider his next words carefully before continuing, "… brutal beat down that Natsu is delivering to Sting and Rogue, but don't be downhearted if you don't realise why, it took me up until recently to figure it out."

He gave everyone, specifically Fairy Tail, a few moments to consider his words before he told them his thoughts. "Earlier today, one Minerva Orlando from the Sabertooth guild gave an equally brutal and nasty attack to Fairy Tail's Lucy Heartfillia, I believe that Natsu is … merely returning the favour."

And indeed he was, whilst they were talking Natsu had managed to get Sting and Rogue back up to the top where he just went straight back to beating the hell out of them. The only reason they were still standing is due to their Dragon Force protecting them from most of the damage however they had no time to counter, let alone defend themselves. A quick **Karyū no Tekken **took the Shadow dragon slayer out of the fight, leaving him there with lots of bruises, cuts and scars that would no doubt take a few weeks to heal.

Natsu turned back to Sting to see him slowly rise to his knees. Looking up at him, everyone gasped as they saw Sting's bruised and bloody face, black and blue surrounded his eyes, selling up leaving him with little room to see through. Everyone watched as Natsu slowly walked towards the half dead dragon slayer.

"You're …_cough…_ you're way too _…cough… _too strong. I'd thought _…cough…_ thought I'd finally be strong enough. Guess I was _…cough…_ I was wrong, huh? Please _…cough…_ please end it." Sting gazed at Natsu with pleading eyes, begging him to end the pain.

Natsu, ever so slowly, lifted his right hand back, forming a fist, he unleashed a powerful right hook that caused the ground surrounding them to crack under the pressure, exerted in the force of the punch. Stings head snapped to the left, everyone was sure that his cheek cracked under the force of the punch, and dropped to the ground, the only sign he was alive was the slight lifting of his chest, as he breathed.

Natsu's roar of victory seemed to shake the crowd out of their stupor causing everyone in the stadium bar the participating guilds to cheer with such and incredible fight. The guilds however, most of their members were quivering in their boots, shaken by such a show of magical power.

Mermaid Heel, all members, including the usually stoic Kagura, was a little scared of the display of power Natsu had produced. Millianna's voice disrupted the peace though. "They expect us to go against that … that … _dragon._ I am a cat, and I do not want to die, thank you very much."

Kagura's voice stopped whatever comments were about to be said however. "You will not die, now let's head back to the inn and discuss a tactic to beat him." _'If there is one' _she added to herself, trying to stop; the shaking of her hands.

Blue Pegasus only had one willing to speak up, the rest only had their jaws on the floor. "Your parfum is … unreachable by any other, Natsu."

Sabertooth were downright pissed, however that only covered the surface, underneath all that anger was fear, for Minerva all that went through was Yajima's reasoning for the brutal assault was because of her.

Quatro Cerberus, no named Quatro Puppy, truly became puppies when they all stood there shaking in fear of the battle tomorrow would bring.

At Fairy Tail however there was no shaking as they had nothing t be afraid of, but there was no denying the feeling of fear that was brought upon them when Natsu showed his true dragon self.

"Has this ever happened before?" Gajeel's voice cut through the silence.

Before anyone could answer they were beat to it. "Yes, once when he as fighting me for Erza's sake, he had eaten part of the tower of heaven, and I forced him into it when I gave him the Golden Flames to eat for his fight against Zero." Everyone turned back to find Jellal standing there.

"I think we now know why Natsu seems to fight better against those deemed stronger than him. Yes?" when Master Makarov only received confused looks in return he explained. "His dragon pride doesn't bother with those he know he can beat, but when he comes across on he knows is tougher, stronger and overall better than him, his dragon pride demands that he establish dominance, wouldn't you say so?" Receiving understanding nods from those apart of the Fairy Tail guild Makarov continued. "Now then let's get him back to the inn and congratulate him, Gajeel I shall let you fight him when we get back to Magnolia, I understand that your fight was … taken away." Once he received the confirming nod from said dragon slayer, Makarov hopped down to the arena to pick up Natsu and congratulate him.

At Lamia Scale, Jura was silent, trying to figure out who would fight the better battle, Natsu Dragneel or Laxus Dreyar. Lyon who was silent up until now had only one comment to make, and somehow it managed to reach the entire stadium.

"I'd forgotten. He may be a blockhead … but when it comes to fighting, his mind is a steel trap."

* * *

**So … what do you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Leave your opinion in a review.**

**When I first saw this episode, straight after Stings comment, I turned to my mate and said 'except for a more powerful dragon, right?'**

**Ever since then I had a debate whether or not I should write a story or one shot for it, before I decided.**

**This is my one shot, however … if any of you on to take it, expand it, and make something out of it, just PM me and I'll tell you if you get it, cause you can't have too many of the same stories floating around.**

**But if you have any questions about this, PM me or leave it in a review and I shall answer all questions on a different chapter, however I'll only do that until one week to day.**

**I shall also post who I have given this story too (if anyone wants to take it) so you can then get their permission to write a story for this too. Since I've already given my permission.**

**Lastly if any of you are fans of my other Fairy Tail story, **_**A Second Chance**_** it is not on hiatus, I'm just struggling to write this next chapter but it will be done soon.**

**With all that said and done, TheMaddogMerc …**

_**PEACE!**_


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